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2014: Year in Review

Bye 2014! It’s been a pretty great year. I finished three more semesters of grad school, ran my 5th marathon, learned to accept running injuries a little more gracefully, laughed a lot with family and friends, and went on plenty of random dates with Ryan (highlights include Euchre night at a nursing home and baking a yogurt-covered cauliflower because I “saw it on Pinterest.”) Not my year for running, but that’s okay.

January: I drove back to Purdue during the snowpocolyspe, and it was terrifying. …Happy New Year! My dad followed me back to make sure I got there safely, and we both were snowed in at my apartment for two days because everything, including most roads, closed down soon after we arrived. Read the exciting “day in the life” post here.
I tackled the cold temps with my running partners and can look back on fun times…running by headlamp at 5am with two layers of pants, mittens over gloves, eyes closed to avoid the ice chunks hurdling through the sky, not being able to talk because our lips wouldn’t move… I experienced five miles that took every ounce of energy I had, painful frostbutt, and frozen eyelashes. It was a great month!!!

February: I turned 24 on the first, Bre and I realized we’d never become computer programmers and mourned our MATLAB class each week with pity pops, and I started training for the Bayshore Marathon in May.

June: I visited Sarah and had a great weekend in Michigan, Ryan and I discovered that dates to the library are awesome, and I battled a sore knee as I got back into running after the marathon. Little did I know that the knee would turn into a full-blown injury that stayed with me for the next 6+ months!

July:I spent the weekend of the 4th in PA for a two-part vacation with extended family on both sides. I once again proved my lack of navigational skills when I got lost on an out-and-back run and found a nice stranger with a bike and an iPhone to help me out. I also went on a fun camping trip with Ryan and his friends and achieved my new record for number of mosquito bites. Running-wise, my right knee was bugging me, so I stuck with cross training instead. At the very end of the month, my PT found that my pelvis was twisted, which may have caused the knee pain, so he pushed it back into place, and POW the pain was gone.

November: I went back to Erie for a wedding, saw Ingrid Michaelson in concert, and spent Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family. I also tried to figure out what was wrong with my knee; I saw a few different specialists and got an MRI. Finally, I went back to my PT, who found that my right hip had rotated again, so he pushed it back into place and POW the pain was gone, again. He gave me a strengthening program to stabilize my SI joint, pelvis, & lumbar vertebrae to and keep everything in place.

December: I finished the semester, passed a really big and important exam, went to a wedding in Pittsburgh, and spent Christmas with my family and Ryan. Running-wise, I’m still working with my PT to strengthen everything around my pelvis, particularly my right-side glutes, and I’m slowly working my mileage back up.

I am SO IMPRESSED that you ran in that awful weather. I stuck to the treadmill and will probably continue that in 2015 🙂 My biggest highlight was finding my amazing internship that is the perfect fit for me 😀

I love all these pictures (frozen eyelashes!) and have had so much fun following your journey this year. It’s been a great one! I hope that 2015 is your best year yet…happy and healthy!! Cheers, friend!